Leather toddler shoes

I'm rather behind on posting any projects! Here are the shoes I made for Rosie's birthday over a month ago. I posted a photo on Instagram while I was making them, and you can see that they originally had leather bows for a little feminine accent.


[One shoe down, one to go!]
I handstitched the bows onto the uppers before assembling the shoes, but I'm sorry to report that my handstitching was not strong enough to withstand even one day of toddler crawling! By the end of the first day, the bows were loose, wonky, and falling off. I removed them and pondered how I could re-attach. The only solution I can think of is leather glue, but I am dubious as to how well that would work. Rosie is now walking more than crawling, which means less stress to the tops of her shoes, but still! Even though the bows were cute, I think I will leave these as is, and chalk it up to a learning experience.


Thankfully the quality of the leather hides the holes made by my handstitching. I used the same pattern as my last effort, but resolved the printing issues I had. This time I used a size 6-12 months and they fit her just right. I sewed the shoes on my machine, with a leather needle, and had no problems with skipping stitches except once, when I was trying to sew through too many layers. The leather (and suede for the soles) came from a local shoe repair shop, where I can go and root through bins of scraps and take what I need for a few bucks.


This project earned me the title of "shoemaker" from Edmund. :) I'll take it!